Moravia, Alberto: The Conformist (1951). Marcello Clerici’s attempt to escape abnormality leads him to a career in the Fascist secret police and political murder.
——: The Fancy Dress Party (1952). Political and amorous intrigue involving a South American dictator, his secret police, and revolutionaries. Ends in murder.
Silone, Ignazio: Fontamara (1934). Growing political awareness and resistance to Fascism destroy a poor village. Peasants v. landowners and the regime. An appeal.
——: Bread and Wine (1937). A revolutionary torn between Communism and religion. Pietro Spina seeks the best of the two while underground from the Fascists.
——: A Handful of Blackberries (1953). Rocco de Donatis’ post-war break with Communism, his survival of its attack, and his re-entry into pro-peasant activity.
Taddei, Ezio: The Pine Tree and the Mole (1945). The top and bottom strata of Livorno society as Fascism uses the underworld to aid in its rise to power.
FRENCH NOVELS
Malraux, André: Man’s Fate (1934). Attempted Communist coup in Shanghai in 1927.
Sartre, Jean-Paul: The Reprieve (1945). Many strata of French society during the ten weeks ending with Munich agreement. Impact on them and other Europeans.
Stendhal, Marie-Henri: The Charterhouse of Parma (1839). Careers of Fabrizio del Dongo, his aunt and her lover, Minister to Prince of Parma in and after Napoleonic era.